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Well before the term "global warming" became a political football, painter Marlene Tseng Yu saw the melting glaciers as artistic inspiration.

Yu began working on her series "Glacier Melting" in 1965, a project she continues to this day. Using an abstract style, the large-scale paintings examine the incremental as well as the monumental changes to bodies of ice.

"I love the many elements in our environment, be they as broad as the horizon beyond or small as cells under the microscope," Yu noted in an artist statement from 1968. "In this vast setting, I hope to capture the spirit of the universe, ...